umass aquatics alumni blog

Two Weeks & Counting

2008-04-22T10:13:00.002-04:00

We've got just less than two weeks until the reunion weekend. Everyone on the Men's Swimming and Diving Board and the coaches have been working hard to prepare a great weekend for everyone. Please make sure you email Russ if you are going to the cocktail reception at Joe and Liz Hebert's on Friday night so we can plan on numbers.

The Men's team participated in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life on Friday April 18 - Saturday April 19. The overnight event generated lots of enthusiasm from the 5 College Community and I was proud of our team's participation and fundraising. Isaac Ebert and RJ Rappe took the lead in organizing this and kudos to them

Let's start posting some comments here to drum up interest in the weekend.

Alumni Reunion

2008-03-23T13:05:00.003-04:00

Hey Gang
We're getting things ready for the reunion weekend. Thought a blog might be fun to share ideas and let people know who is coming etc. Let's get people psyched for the weekend and join in supporting UMass Swimming and Diving!
Russ

Done Deal!

2008-02-24T00:14:00.002-05:00

Number Ten is in the books!
I'm too tired to write anything else.
GO UMASS!!

A little Pop, slight fizzle, then a Bang

2008-02-23T13:05:00.003-05:00

Saturday morning trials started great, with 3 lifetime bests in the 200 Back. Man-Drew placed first with a very controlled 1:50 and Max with a well swum 1:52 to place 5th. Drew also swam a personal best and squeaked in at 16th with a 1:57.
The 100 Free and the 200 Breast were a little off for us today but we still managed to place a tired Juan Moliere in finals(he'll be ready tonight he claims!) and Nate and AJ in consols. Nate looked great but missed his 50 wall and came out at a stand still. I think we'll see a 45 out of him tonight. Brian Schmidt, fresh (or not so fresh) off his 1100 yard race day, managed to squeak into finals of the 200 Breast with a lifetime best 2:07. Weaver swam a strong 2:08 but just missed the top 8 and is in tenth for tonight.
Then we picked up speed as Mike Berthaume swam to the top seed in the 200 Fly with his best ever 1:52...he swam it a little too hard the 3rd fifty and was just holding on at the end but should be a little more controlled tonight. Tim Smith churned to a lifetime best in 1:54 for 7th while senior Derek Castellana finalled in 6th place with another 1:54, just ahead of Tim.
Tim has to do the mile this afternoon then we start the evening session with three milers in the final heat: Brad Sloan, Tristan Partridge, and defending champ Justin Brooks!
GO UMASS

Friday Night Firsts!!

2008-02-22T22:21:00.004-05:00

The boys won 4 of the seven events tonight and 1-2'd the backstroke and the diving!
We started off with frosh phenom Brian Schmidt cranking a 4:03 IM to place third - that's almost 10 seconds better than his high school best!
That was followed by an awesome come from behind 100 fly by Nate Bromage to tie the St. Bonnie Polish National Team freshman in a blazing 48.88....one more yard and it would have been Nate all alone. Mike Berthaume was 3rd and Zack Priest was 4th!. We were a little off in the 200 Free but scored good points with 8,12,13,14,15 place finishes to show our depth.
Brian Schmidt came back with another lifetime best in the 100 Breast at 57.28....Pat Kuehne finished at :58.42 in a lifetime best in the consols!.
Then came the show! Andrew and Max 1-2'd the 100 Back (both 50.+), then RJ and Byron put on an awesome display to finish 1-2 in the 3 Meter Diving (A10 Record for RJ)....then we followed with a very exciting Medley Relay win as Willbrant, Schmidt (Yup - 1100 yards of racing for him today!!!), Bromage, and Moliere took the lead early and never looked back!.
We've got another strong day planned for tomorrow - Team Score has UMass with 577.5 and SBU with 421.5.
The coach and everyone else are getting tired but Day 4 has always been what UMass Swimming is all about.
GO UMASS!!

Friday morning session produces good stuff!!

2008-02-22T15:13:00.003-05:00

Some nice swims this morning - highlighted by Andrew (now known as Man-Drew) Willbrant qualifying first in the 100 back with a smoking :50.6. We also had a great swim by Max (I'm Baaaack) Butler finishing 3rd in 51.0. Zack attack Priest placed in the final as well and also qualified in the 100 fly top 8.
The first event of the morning was the 400 IM....freshman Brian Schmidt had a pretty painful 4:05 swim but is in the final along with junior Brad Sloan. Brian hadn't swum an event yet and was a little stiff while Brad didn't feel that good either but we'll warm him up a little differently tonight and he'll be ready to go.
The 100 fly was awesome with both Bromage and Berthaume coming in at 49 plus and seeded 2nd and third. AJ Vozella started to come around by making finals in the 200 and we placed four guys in consols. Next came the backstroke performance then we saw Schmidtty break through with an awesome 57.6 (nothing like a 400 IM for warm up) and a solid 58.0 from John 'I'm not injured any more' Weaver. Pat Kuehne stroked into the consols with a 59.2.
Things look good for tonight as we also put 4 divers into finals of the 3 Meter competition with RJ first, Byron 2nd, and freshmen Adam Duffield and John CLark 4th and 7th respectively. I'm gonna say we have a pretty good diving coach.....the women went 1-2-3 on 1 Meter last night!!!!!!!!!
We're building up some real energy and confidence as we pass the half way point of the meet. More fireworks tonight!
GO UMASS

Thursday Night Thunder!

2008-02-21T21:34:00.002-05:00

We started with the 500 and 4:34's from both Brooks and Talarick and a very nice 4:37 from Sloan establishing the tone for the night.
Willbrant, steamed to a 1:53 IM and then Juan Moliere took the title in the 50 Free at :20.77.
Later on the 200 Free Relay was led off again by Juan in a blazing :20.48 as the team of Moliere, Bromage, Vozella, and Priest got touched out by two one hundredths for 1st place by a quick Duquesne team. I must say they followed the coach's orders and held their starts as we are moving into the team score lead and didn't want any DQ's.
At the end of the evening we've extended the distance over SBU to 76 points with a strong day coming tomorrow. Brian Schmidt, Zack Priest, Derek Castellana, and Mike Berthaume haven't swum an individual event yet and they are chomping at the bit!
Our fans were awesome, pumping up the volume and exhorting the UMass swimmers to extra effort. Full results should be on the UMass athletics website soon or at www.atlantic10.org

GO UMASS

:20.63!!!!!

2008-02-21T13:35:00.002-05:00

Thursday morning Trials are in the books - :20.63 by Juan Moliere to gain the top seed in the 50. He was followed closely by Nate Bromage who jammed his finish a little but still went :21.06.
Our distance crew took no prisoners as they placed three in finals and one in consols. They were led by freshman Drew Talarick in at 4:35 who finished his last 200 in 1:49!
The IM was a bit of a question mark in the coach's mind but the questions were quickly put to rest as Andrew Willbrant and Max Butler both made finals and Pat Kuehne and John Weaver got in the second eight.
St. Bonaventure had a strong morning but if we can hold our places (or improve as we usually do!) we have a good shot at extending our lead a little more.
GO UMASS

First Night Action

2008-02-20T21:44:00.003-05:00

The highlight of the first night - ALL FIVE DIVERS PLACE IN FINALS!!
An awesome display by Coach Hixon's crew, led by senior RJ Rappe winning the 1 Meter Board for the 4th straight year and setting an Atlantic 10 Record. He was followed by freshman Adam Duffield on the podium in 3rd, John Clark (FR) in 5th, Byron Johnson 7th, and another freshman, Zack Lichter in 8th. This crew put 73 points on the scoreboard.

Our swimmers were solid, but like I said, there are a lot of great swimmers and teams here this year. The 200 Medley relay was led off by The Big Hoss, Andrew Willbrant with a lifetime best 23.66, followed by lifetime best split by Pat'the leprechaun' Kuehne (26.3). Nate was a little off on his split but will re-group tomorrow and Juan brought it home in a 20.2. The 800 free relay was again solid, but not quite where we wanted to be. Max Butler and Drew Talarick swam the middle legs in lifetime bests, while AJ led off a little tight but again he'll put it together later in the meet. Derek Castallana finished in a strong and easy 1:42 to place the squad in 4th.

We just had a team meeting to focus on tomorrow's events and understand that no team is going to just roll over for us - we have to take the championship by tremendous swimming performances.

UMass leads the meet with 135 points followed by St. Bonaventure with 104. Tomorrow we have our distance crew going at the 500 for the first time - this coach is psyched to see those swims to say the least. That will be followed by the 200 IM (Watch out for Willbrant), and the 50 Freestyle. At night there will also be the 200 Free Relay.
GO UMASS

Countdown to the Relays

2008-02-20T13:39:00.002-05:00

We're back from the pool and our morning warm up swim - once again squad looks ready to go. 200 Medley Relay has been set at Willbrant, Kuehne, Bromage, and Moliere. They go in as the top seed but all the teams in the top 5 have a chance to turn in 1:32's or better, so we have to be ready to start things off well. Speaking of starting things off, Andrew Willbrant will inherit the 'First Swim of the Meet' role from Assistant Coach Swisher - I'm sure he'll do a great job. Then we'll watch diving finals of Men's 1 Meter, then our 800 Free Relay squad will try to defend the title from last year.
Just a reminder that the proceedings will be live webcast - go to the following link for more info:
http://umassathletics.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/umas-m-swim-body.html
GO UMASS!!

Shuffling off to Buffalo

2008-02-19T17:11:00.003-05:00

Long bus ride - three movies as promised...selection OK, poor, and great.
Started with the Italian Job, then much to this coach's dismay Captain Weaver thought SpaceBalls would be a good choice...maybe for a 12 year old, but then again look what I'm dealing with! We finished up with Casino Royale, an awesome Bond remake in my opinion.
Went straight to the pool to shake off the bus ride and had the squad do our regular team warm up. As usual some of them felt great, some ok, and some horrible...but the meet doesn't start until tomorrow.
Events tomorrow evening are the 200 Medley Relay which will be Max Butler or Andrew Willbrant leading off, Pat Kuehne probably in the breast leg, Nate Bromage doing fly, and our Puerto Rican Rocket Juan Moliere anchoring. After that relay the men's 1 Meter Diving will take place...hopefully with some great representation from our 5 divers performances in the afternoon trials. The evening will finish with our 800 Free Relay team of AJ Vozella, Max Butler, Drew Talarick, and Derek Castellana. I'm hoping to see them make a run at the school record.
GO UMASS!

Last Boyden Practice

2008-02-18T17:24:00.001-05:00

All you alumni remember the bittersweet feeling of the last Boyden practice of the season, and for the seniors, the last Boyden practice of their lives. It was a great atmosphere today as we had John Weaver, Zack Priest, AJ Vozella, and Derek Castellana in the water, with a pumped up squad, finishing off their Boyden careers.....however, their UMass Swimming careers have one more small item to take care of!
Earlier in the day RJ Rappe finished his final A10 workout, but we plan on seeing more of him as he gets ready for Zones and hopefully beyond!
The focus of today's training was to get some loosening up in the morning (team stretch and 15 minutes choice) and then come back and do a little heart rate stuff and fine tune relay starts etc. in the afternoon. We purchased a Relay Takeoff Pad (thanks to all you donors) and have been using that as they will be in use at the A10's this year.
We're ready for an 8:00 AM departure tomorrow....3 Movie Bus Ride to Buffalo....test the waters at Flickinger Aquatic Center.....go to the hotel to prepare for some fast swimming.

2008-02-17T19:45:00.000-05:00

With three days to go until A10's today was the last official day off for the squad before we leave on Tuesday. About 9 or ten of the boys showed up at Boyden for the optional loosen up at 12:30 before I left. The gang looks loose and confident as we focus on winning our 10th title in 13 years. Our motto for the season has been 'The Perfect Ten". As usual a very strong St. Bonaventure squad will be our biggest challengers next week.
Highlights from last week's final preparations had to include the great swimming of our sprinters. Both Juan Moliere (:20.57) and Nate Bromage (:20.89) swam hand-held lifetime bests...indicative of some great swimming to come. The pace work of all the distance lane and our strokers has been looking awesome also. I sat in on yesterday's diving pratctice and the spinning and twisting was ending up in rip -city entries.
We're all pumped up to do it for the UMass alumni and keep the title in Amherst. I'll try to blog every day after each session just to update people on the inside story!!
GO UMASS